Riveting adventure and romance power this forceful first novel.
An American tech exec is caught up in international terrorism as she also battles personal demons in McKenzie’s thriller.
Tess Bennett is having a bad week, trying to chase away some of the demons of her past at a sketchy punk club in London. But things only get worse for the American tech executive, who, while filling in for her boss and CEO at a conference, is taken hostage by terrorists determined to steal an encryption computer code called Firefly that was developed by Tess’ company. Tess is held hostage with Mark Nygaard, a widowed Norwegian doctor dealing with his own grief. They plot a thrilling escape and strike up a romance that plays out against a backdrop of terrorism and computer espionage. After Tess and Mark get away, the extortionists go after her boss, David Kingsley, CEO of Kingsley Tech, and the new couple fight to save him and keep the software out of the wrong hands. The software isn’t just the lucrative product of the company Tess works for; it was developed by Kyle, her fiance, who was killed in a car wreck a year before. What seemed like an accident proves to be murder, and Tess and Mark work to bring the killers to justice, helped by clues Kyle left for Tess. The investigation takes Tess to the dark web and headfirst into the world of cyberterrorism and blackmail. In her debut novel, the author writes with a sure touch, creating thrill-a-minute adventure scenes while also excelling at the tender, romantic moments. The plot is intricate without being convoluted, and the characters, especially Tess and Mark, are layered and memorable. Tess is a character you want to know more about (“Danger Dad taught her countless precautions throughout her childhood. Hypervigilant but teetering on paranoid, he required she study martial arts and master basic weaponry, even fencing”), and her romance with Mark, which could have been just a convenient plot device, comes off as real and organic. Hopefully Tess and Mark will return in future volumes for more intrigue.
Riveting adventure and romance power this forceful first novel.Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2023
ISBN: 9781509249831
Page Count: 376
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press, Inc.
Review Posted Online: June 30, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.
What would you do if you knew when you were going to die?
In the first page and a half of her latest page-turner, bestselling Australian author Moriarty introduces a large cast of fascinating characters, all seated on a flight to Sydney that’s delayed on the tarmac. There’s the “bespectacled hipster” with his arm in a cast; a very pregnant woman; a young mom with a screaming infant and a sweaty toddler; a bride and groom, still in their wedding clothes; a surly 6-year-old forced to miss a laser-tag party; a darling elderly couple; a chatty tourist pair; several others. No one even notices the woman who will later become a household name as the “Death Lady” until she hops up from her seat and begins to deliver predictions to each of them about the age they’ll be when they die and the cause of their deaths. Age 30, assault, for the hipster. Age 7, drowning, for the baby in arms. Age 43, workplace accident, for a 42-year-old civil engineer. Self-harm, age 28, for the lovely flight attendant, who is that day celebrating her 28th birthday. Over the next 126 chapters (some just a paragraph), you will get to know all these people, and their reactions to the news of their demise, very well. Best of all, you will get to know Cherry Lockwood, the Death Lady, and the life that brought her to this day. Is it true, as she repeatedly intones on the plane, that “fate won’t be fought”? Does this novel support the idea that clairvoyance is real? Does it find a means to logically dismiss the whole thing? Or is it some complex amalgam of these possibilities? Sorry, you won’t find that out here, and in fact not until you’ve turned all 500-plus pages. The story is a brilliant, charming, and invigorating illustration of its closing quote from Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (we’re not going to spill that either).
A fresh, funny, ambitious, and nuanced take on some of our oldest existential questions. Cannot wait for the TV series.Pub Date: Sept. 10, 2024
ISBN: 9780593798607
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: June 15, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2024
PERSPECTIVES
Expert, but unsurprising.
The death of an old friend who was more than a friend sends Dr. Kay Scarpetta down her latest rabbit hole.
If every body tells a story, the corpse of 7-year-old Luna Briley sings the blues. On top of the many signs of ongoing physical abuse, there’s the fatal gunshot wound to her head. Ryder and Piper Briley, the wealthy and powerful parents who didn’t call the police until after their daughter died, insist that Luna’s death was an accident, or maybe a suicide. Scarpetta doesn’t think so, and her refusal to release the body to the Brileys’ hand-picked mortician moves them to legal action against her as Virginia’s chief medical examiner. You’d think it would be a relief to put this case aside for another when Scarpetta’s niece, Secret Service agent Lucy Farinelli, calls her and ferries her by helicopter to an abandoned Oz theme park owned by Ryder Briley, but this one’s even more heartbreaking. Scarpetta is there to examine the body of astrophysicist Sal Giordano, her close friend and former lover, who was evidently kidnapped, held in captivity for several hours, and tossed out of an unidentified aircraft. The leading suspects are the Brileys; Carrie Grethen, Lucy’s sociopathic ex-lover, with whom Scarpetta has repeatedly tangled in the past; and the UFO that dumped Giordano’s body without leaving the usual traces for air-traffic technologies to pick up. The multiple rounds of physical examinations Scarpetta conducts on both victims are every bit as meticulous and gripping as fans would expect; the killer’s identity is neither surprising nor interesting, but Cornwell juggles her trademark forensics, and the paranormal hints she’s become increasingly invested in, more dexterously than usual.
Expert, but unsurprising.Pub Date: Oct. 8, 2024
ISBN: 9781538770382
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: Aug. 29, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2024
BOOK TO SCREEN
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